The Belligerent Miss Boynton AND The Lurid Lady Lockport (Two Companion Full-Length Regency Novels) (33 page)

Harrow brightened perceptively. "Yer got a good head on yer shoulders, Beulah. I'll just step in and tell hiz lordship what we're about so that he can set his mind to ease."

Jared was more than happy to give Amanda's two old servants something to do, and readily agreed to the plan after Harrow promised to keep well out of sight.

The rotund woman moved up the staircase with amazing speed, dragging a weeping Sally in her wake, and within half an hour the heavily-loaded coach was on its way. Inside were Tom, who had somehow smuggled his slight body aboard, and Nanny. Both were shoved into a tiny space that was all that was available, for the rest of the coach was taken up with bundles of warm clothing for Amanda and Lady Chezwick, as well as medicine, blankets, and food. There was even a small layette packed for the baby. "You never know, Tom, when the wee one might come after the jostling my poor baby will get on this godforsaken road."

"Yes'um, Nannny," the lad said, his eyes wide, and then quickly grabbed for one of the hanging straps as Harrow put the whip to the team.

Kevin and Bo retired to Jared's private study, where the three men could be undisturbed. Kevin paced the room in his anxiety to be off. "Would you be so kind as to tell me what we're doing here, old friend? We should be riding."

Jared shook his head and continued to stare into the flames licking the fireplace across the room. "That's just what we shouldn't be doing, Kevin. Bo here was right when he said I'd underestimated Freddie, and now I may be tending to give my cousin more credit than he is due. But I think he expects us to come pelting after Amanda—and straight into a trap. My God, man, don't you think I want to go charging out after my wife? But I want to save her, not be the cause of her death." He looked up at his agitated friend and asked him to summon a footman.

Jared then dashed off a note to Lord Close, informing him of the kidnapping and asking him to present the note to the authorities in the event of any tragedy, naming Frederick Crosswaithe as the kidnapper. "That should put a spoke in Freddie's wheel if he's out to make himself blameless in this episode," he commented as the footman left the room with the note.

Bo, who had until this moment been keeping his own counsel, decided it was time he, so to speak, kept his end up in the proceedings. "Own score to settle, old man. Like a whack or two at Freddie m'self. Coming on to dark, though. Better shove off, what?"

"Not yet, Bo. First we must have a plan. This mill is well known to me, and I wager the thaw has made a sorry mess of the lane leading to it from the main road. Considering Freddie and his abhorrence of night travel in general, I'm more than half certain Amanda will not be moved again until morning."

"Unless the mill is truly just a spot Freddie picked for his so-called exchange, and Amanda is either hidden away elsewhere or, even worse, already on her way to only God knows where," Kevin interposed with a sigh.

"Vote the mill," Bo stated, rising rapidly to his feet. "Tally-ho, gents. To the hunt! " He was halfway to the door before he realized no one was following, and so he retraced his steps to his chair, where he sat impatiently staring at his friends as if willing them to action. Soon his intent gaze, like Kevin's, focused solely on Jared. The worried husband continued to lean back in his chair behind the desk, tapping the top of a long silver letter opener on the cut-glass inkwell in front of him.

"Deuced wearing on the nerves," Bo commented after a time, to no one in particular, although no more than a minute had passed.

Kevin shot him a fierce look. "Quiet, you numbskull. Can't you see Jared's conjuring up a plan of attack?"

At long last Jared's fine black eyebrows arched skywards and a particularly nasty smile curled up one side of his mouth. "Gentlemen, I've decided on our course of action." Ignoring Bo's aside to Kevin that suggested this plan had not popped into their friend's head any too soon, he continued, "Even though there's a full moon, I'm almost completely sure Freddie, and Amanda, will remain as guests of the miller for the night. As he will surely set out to some preplanned, untraceable location at first light, it is imperative we act swiftly."

"Said so. Don't listen, none of you," Bo interrupted as he turned to Kevin. "You said he was thinking. Not such a deep one if I said it first."

"Stow it, you lunkhead," Kevin hissed, and then prodded Jared to resume speaking. "If our resident wise man dares pipe up again I'll just pop him one in his brain-box. You know." He winked broadly to ease the tension. "That so ample portion of Bo's anatomy, most mercifully shielded from our sight as long as he remains seated."

"I say," the offended gentleman began, before hastily clapping a pudgy hand over his mouth in evidence of his return to a nearly mute state as Kevin made a threatening gesture in his direction.

"Call a halt, gentlemen, please,"Jared intervened as he rose to walk around to lean against the front of the desk. "As I was saying, Freddie is, for the moment, within our grasp. The only problem will be in capturing him and any hired men he may have with him—no more than two or three if I'm any judge of Freddie's thin pockets and cheeseparing ways—without causing harm to the ladies. To that end I propose we ride out ourselves, as too many men crashing through the trees would be more an encumbrance than a help. We'll circle around, and approach from the rear. Now listen carefully, old friends. Here's my plan."

Kevin and Bo were still arguing as to who was in charge of their end of the campaign while Jared was heading for the door. Without breaking stride he called over his shoulder, "Kevin, you take Devil, he's sure-footed and fast. And Bo, you're to ride that new bay mare I acquired last month. That plug of yours wouldn't last a mile at the pace I wish to set. If I know Harrow, he ordered her saddled before he left."

As they loped toward the stable area Kevin inquired as to Jared's mount. "I'll be riding Tempest," he told him. "There isn't another horse in England will take me faster to Amanda's side."

Kevin stopped dead in his tracks. "Are you mad, man? That beast won't let you on his back."

Bo agreed. "Feed him. House him. Don't mean he loves you."

Jared ignored them as a groom approached with the black stallion and, as he had guessed, the bay mare.

Kevin smiled at Jared's romantic gesture and saluted him smartly. "Don't knock me down with the breeze as you fly by. That is, if you can get that beast to carry you." Then the smile left his face and the three men solemnly shook hands. "Good luck, old friend. You can count on Bo and me being just where you want us, ready to fight," he intoned gravely. Then he and Bo were astride their mounts and gone.

Jared continued on into the stables, where Tempest was quietly standing in his stall. The great red stallion eyed the now familiar figure warily as Jared opened the stall door and drew the horse out. Slowly he fastened a bridle and saddle on the horse, then stepped back and looked Tempest square in the eye. "Mandy needs us, boy, and you're the fastest way to her side. I've already lost a lot of time deciding on the right course of action, and I'm counting on your swiftness to help recapture some of those precious minutes." He turned away, then and cursed himself under his breath. "The tension has unhinged me, by God. Perhaps Kevin was right. This idea was a romantic gesture at best. Now I'm left without a decent mount. Just listen to me—reasoning with the brute!"

As he stood there with his back to the horse, he felt a nudging in the center of his spine, a nudging that nearly sent him sprawling. He whirled to face the horse and hope flared in his chest. Without waiting to figure out exactly why he thought it would work, he swung up onto Tempest's back and urged him forward, out of the stable and into the yard.

They rode ahead of the wind, the tall man and the giant horse, moving forward as one toward the main road. "To Mandy!" Jared shouted in Tempest's ear, feeling half-giddy with elation and not a small bit ridiculous at the same time. Within minutes they passed his friends, and their bracing cheers brought a grin to Jared's face. As he flew past Harrow a mile further down the road he shouted, "Don't go too close. And if you value your ancient skin, keep that bossy old woman quiet."

Harrow shouted back, "Yes, sir, milord. Ride him, milord, ride him hard!"

Jared let out a whoop before man and horse disappeared from sight over the crest of the next hill, kicking up a spray of ice and slush as they went.

Inside the coach, Nanny—who, fortunately for her master, had not heard a word he'd shouted to Harrow—was trying desperately to keep her Sunday-best hat on her head as she bounced higgledy-piggledy all over the coach. "If I live through this night I shall most certainly murder Harrow on the morrow. All men are just little boys, Tom, and I do believe they enjoy this mad chase."

"Yes, ma'am," Tom replied dutifully. What was the old woman so het up about? Harrow said no one would hurt Miss Mandy before his lordship showed up to save her, and his lordship certainly wouldn't let anything happen to her. Why, when he wasn't thinking too hard about Miss Mandy he could be pretty excited by this adventure himself! He pushed Nanny's ample form back into the corner as she bounced over onto him. Women, he sneered to himself. Lily-livered creatures they were, the lot of them!

#

Freddie Crosswaithe was becoming a bit disenchanted with the night's events as they had so far unfolded. The meal Clem's cohort had prepared was almost entirely inedible, the cottage was cold, offering only a mediocre fire in the cavernous fireplace to warm him. Jared should have ridden up at least two hours since, and, curse the luck, it was snowing again. Where could his unreliable cousin be? Didn't the dolt realize he was upsetting their well-laid plans?

Freddie chewed on his bottom lip as he stood in the darkness, watching the approach to the mill through a gap in the homespun curtains. As his confidence in Blanche's genius waned, his reliance on the quarterly allowance Jared had paid him seemed less and less a hardship.

And where was Peter? He would have to be spoon-feeding the prisoners to be taking this long. He should come relieve his master, for this standing about in his high-heeled slippers was hard on his tender insteps.

He called for Clem to come away from his obvious while unbelievable enjoyment of his dinner to take up a position near the windows so he could go and seek out his valet. The man on guard, Simon or Simeon or whatever, reported he had not seen Peter since that man had taken a tray to the ladies in one of the upper rooms of the cottage.

Freddie's eyes narrowed suspiciously and he climbed swiftly to the bedroom, where Amanda and Lady Chezwick impatiently awaited their rescuers.

Amanda was lying fully clothed atop the miller's feather bed, her enormous belly looking even more distended now than it had when she was upright. Lady Chezwick had been dozing fitfully in a chair, but roused as her niece spoke.

"So, Freddie," Amanda teased as he entered the room, "your plan seems not to be working out as you had hoped. Did you really think my husband would come rushing in here willy-nilly, and without giving a thought to your treachery?" At his outraged expression she gave a weak laugh and said, "I think I should tell you of the fatal flaw in your scheme. You see, you rely heavily on my husband's love for me. I perhaps should tell you that ours was a marriage of convenience and nothing more. Right now Jared and his friends are probably all warm and cozy at Storm Haven, celebrating his happy release from an unwanted union by indulging in a round of slap and tickle with two or more of the housemaids."

Lady Chezwick was quick to confirm Amanda's lies. "That's true, you poor, misguided moron. This chit purposely compromised Jared into marriage, a fact you must be aware of if you saw them together at that awful inn, and he was constrained to wed her. She may have been penniless, but she was still a Boynton, you know. You can't imagine how near you were to the truth when you named Rawlings as father to her spawn. To be absolutely correct, however, you must realize the girl could only be guessing if she were to single out any one man for that dubious honor."

Amanda turned her head away to hide her smile. Aunt Agatha was certainly heart and soul into her role, but doing it a bit too brown, to Amanda's mind.

Lady Chezwick, willing to run any rig in the hope it would discommode her obnoxious relative, decided to push her point home further. After all, she knew Freddie from long ago and knew just where to aim her barbs. "Jared will arrive, though. I believe he has a score to settle with you on quite another matter. But it's apparent to me that he delays until you rid him of his unwanted wife. So once again, Jared wins. He will have shed this common baggage—a blessing, I assure you—and your neck shall stretch in his stead. Ah, Freddie, you were always so adept at playing the fool. It's perhaps your only talent."

Freddie was breathing heavily now, his thin face screwed up in an expression of confusion mixed with disbelief. "Enough! You're both lying. I saw your concern for each other earlier, and the chit's fear for her precious Jared. You're just trying to confuse me."

"A task I have always found lamentably simple, I might add," Lady Chezwick pointed out with an exaggerated sigh. "Always did take after his father. To this day I cannot imagine what Hortense ever saw in him. No doubt she's spinning in her grave with shame right this minute."

Amanda chuckled at the first bit of humor to strike her since this entire nightmare began. Then she sobered and said, "Ah, Freddie, forgive us for bamming you. It's just my relief at realizing all my fears of the past months were unnecessary. Strange as it may seem, as we are indeed your prisoners, I'm no longer the least bit afraid. Bo was wrong and my so very astute husband was correct. You're nothing but a harmless looby—all mad schemes and bluster, but with no real bite whatsoever. Why, I'm astonished you're let out alone. And your henchmen are more bumbling than you, going so far as to attack our coach and earn nothing else for it but a gunshot wound. Aggie, did I tell you that Anne confided in me that it was she who shot the highwayman? I know I shouldn't betray her confidence, but it is rather funny, isn't it? The bad men routed by a small girl with a big pistol. But I'm certain I'm keeping you from something, Freddie. What errand brought you to our gaol? Have you perhaps misplaced our keeper?"